Preparing for Winter V

Siebrie

Our annual meter reading has led to a €45 refund for gas, and €89 for elec! All the insulating, and wearing thicker clothes, and turning off the lights, and crawling under a blanket on the sofa, and letting the central heating cool down to 12 degrees, heating up to no more than 17 degrees, has paid off! We are on a direct debit plan and pay €111.95 for both, so we get more than a month's worth back!

Ladybirdbaba

Winter hit north east England last night. For the first time I was cold in bed but luckily I had prepared and bought a hot water bottle and got blankets sorted, everything was handy.
My front door planning (fleece lined door curtains, door brushes and letter box brushes) has meant passage was at 16 degrees as opposed to 11.
I bought lined wool gloves and have used those.
Really nice to have everything just there and done from planning.

MandM90

We had a 12 hour power cut on Friday!!

Things I was very glad for:

Candles (those 100 'glimma' ones from IKEA. Sprinked them around the house in jars)
The woodburner, and a good supply of wood, matches and fire lighters
Warm clothing(!)
Have a stovetop - and not electric - kettle
A gym membership so I could shower and charge my phone
Kind neighbours
Kindles with backlights!

Just a reminder that they can and do happen!

mardatha

Power cuts happen a lot up here, everything is totally manageable if you're organised yes
We had freezing rain that turned the windows into frosted glass - was very claustrophobic. Then it turned to snow and made walking outside impossible, was lethal. Then the power went off in the high winds, and we cosied in with candles

Out,_Vile_Jelly

MandM90 wrote: »

We had a 12 hour power cut on Friday!!

Things I was very glad for:

Candles (those 100 'glimma' ones from IKEA. Sprinked them around the house in jars)
The woodburner, and a good supply of wood, matches and fire lighters
Warm clothing(!)
Have a stovetop - and not electric - kettle
A gym membership so I could shower and charge my phone
Kind neighbours
Kindles with backlights!

Just a reminder that they can and do happen!

A part of me would quite welcome a scenario that justifies being organised and prepared! I'm getting a camping stove to keep in my shed, as I don't have a gas hob and would have no means to heat water or cook in a power cut.

THIRZAH

Most of our town was without water for over 12 hours one day last week.It was due to a major pipe bursting so we had no warning. We managed as we keep in a supply of bottled and I'd filled the camping water carrier the week before as we'd been warned that our water might be cut off for planned work -it wasn't but I'd not got round to emptying the carrier.


The supermarket soon sold out of water and I heard of someone filling a bucket from the river so they could flush the toilet.


It made me realise how much we depend on having running water-i don't know how many times I automatically turned on the tap that day.

Ladybirdbaba

You don't miss it till its gone.
I had a new boiler put in not long ago , I've not felt heat like it but I'm scared to have it too hot for the cost. The heat at half way is like at full blast on my last one.

Eenymeeny

THIRZAH wrote: »

Most of our town was without water for over 12 hours one day last week.It was due to a major pipe bursting so we had no warning. We managed as we keep in a supply of bottled and I'd filled the camping water carrier the week before as we'd been warned that our water might be cut off for planned work -it wasn't but I'd not got round to emptying the carrier.


The supermarket soon sold out of water and I heard of someone filling a bucket from the river so they could flush the toilet.


It made me realise how much we depend on having running water-i don't know how many times I automatically turned on the tap that day.

I certainly agree with that! Last week the hot water part of the kitchen mixer tap wasn't working. OH told me not to use it until we could buy a replacement tap. Like you I realised how many times I turned the hot tap on just to rinse my hands!

shanks77

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

A part of me would quite welcome a scenario that justifies being organised and prepared! I'm getting a camping stove to keep in my shed, as I don't have a gas hob and would have no means to heat water or cook in a power cut.

You can use tea lights with a wire rack on top to heat things up. Wouldn’t recommend cooking raw meat or anything but you could heat up a tin of soup or water for a cuppa. Just a thought in case a power cut happens before you get your stove xx

mardatha

yes, even 9 tealights in a circle will make water boil eventually. I used a big round Quality Street tin with about 8 or 9 tealights in it and a wire tray on top and it worked well.
It was only an experiment, as my cooker runs on Propane so I don't need to use tealights lol